Monthly Archives: February 2013

From: NJ.com

By Christopher Baxter/The Star-Ledger

State law requires cigarette packs be officially stamped to indicate applicable state taxes have been paid, and residents are not permitted to possess or consume counterfeit or smuggled cigarettes that are untaxed, improperly stamped or unstamped.

The Center for Regulatory Effectiveness provided the following materials at the TMA’s Illicit Trade in Tobacco Conference:

Public Health versus Criminal Wealth: The FDA’s Cigarette Policy Decision

Counterfeit Products, Genuine Harm: How Intellectual Property Theft Fuels Organized Crime While Undermining American Communities

An Inquiry into the Nature, Causes and Impacts of Contraband Cigarettes

From: King5.com

by CHRIS INGALLS / KING 5 News

A Kenmore woman’s plea bargain last week is the first conviction after the feds busted a ring of cigarette smugglers.

Han Bui had more than 2000 cartons of contraband cigarettes in her home, and $115,500 in cash, when the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms raided it in July of 2011.

Bui’s plea of “guilty” to a charge of Trafficking in Contraband Cigarettes comes as the State of Washington issued a report showing a record number of cigarettes consumed in Washington are from the black market.

From: The Daily Star

BEIRUT: Lebanon thwarted the largest ever cigarette smuggling attempt to Egypt in December, the Egyptian Embassy announced Monday.

“Out of 15 containers, owned by a Jordanian company, four containers [were found to include] 40 tons of counterfeit cigarettes,” a statement by the embassy said.

Sources at the Port of Beirut said the operation took place in December, but few details were released to media at that time.

Discovery of the shipment at the port followed a tip to Lebanese authorities by the Eastern Tobacco Company, Egypt’s state-owned tobacco production and distribution monopoly, the statement said.

From: Hull Daily Mail

ONE of the biggest hauls of bootleg cigarettes has been seized by Britain’s  anti-smuggling agency at the Port of Hull.

Border Force officers found an estimated seven million cigarettes stuffed inside a fuel  tank container shipped from St Petersburg, which they selected for closer inspection.

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SMUGGLED:  The cigarettes were found in a fuel  tank container from St Petersburg.

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An X-ray and subsequent search revealed the 20ft tanker was filled with hessian sacks with millions of cigarettes stuffed inside.

Thursday’s find came just weeks after Border Force found 5.7 million cigarettes in a trailer, also at the Port of Hull.